Review #131: Lagavulin 12yr Cask Strength, 2013 release, OB, 55.1%

back in the game

Sometimes it's hard to appreciate whisky, which is fine. Other things intervene, and everything somehow starts to taste the same. I haven't written any reviews, or even tried anything new in a while, but I think I can do it again now.

This is, obviously, the annual cask-strength release of Lagavulin. My impression is that it's always worth getting, but never that exciting. This is last year's version, because that's where I'm at.

nose: linseed oil and coal smoke, lots of oyster liqueur, and a little bit of gasoline. Lemonade and crushed rocks and kelp.* There's a nice non-vanilla sweetness. It's sweet and smoky and coastal in a predictable way (but maybe I'm just spoiled).

palate: nicely intense. The peat becomes at once more vegetal and more dieselly, and it really bites; and there's a feeling of sucking on shellfish (shell and all). Oily background. This is where this whisky wins me over a little.

finish: lemon and sweetness fight back for a second, but then the peat reasserts itself, and lasts a remarkably long time.


This isn't the most intense; it isn't the most complex; the flavors aren't the most interesting. But it's very good and straightforward and likeable.

score: 86



* this reminds me: I once sat in a Japanese restaurant next to a table that had ordered oysters (I think). they were served on a bed of rock salt and nori, artistically presented. That table thought they were supposed to eat the plate decoration, and it seemed rude to interrupt them. They found it to be good, but too salty.